England captain Alastair Cook was already looking ahead after becoming the youngest batsman to score 10,000 Test runs during the course of his side’s series-clinching win over Sri Lanka at the Riverside on Monday.
Cook, who started the day needing five more runs to bring up his 10,000, reached the landmark when he clipped Nuwan Pradeep for four through mid-wicket.
That left-handed opener finished on 47 not out as England won the second Test with more than a day to spare, a victory that put them 2-0 up in the three-match series.
Cook is the first England batsman to score 10,000 Test runs and at 31 years and 157 days old, the youngest from any country, beating the previous record of India great Sachin Tendulkar (31 years and 326 days).
“It’s a very special moment for me, but the game is not about personal milestones, it’s about winning games and scoring runs to do that,” said Cook.
Cook, acknowledging the input of Essex and England mentor Graham Gooch, added: “It’s those seven o’clock nets with Goochie, it’s all that hard work that goes with it.”
Gooch, himself a former opener whose tally of 8,900 Test runs puts him second behind Cook on England’s all-time list, paid tribute to his protege by telling BBC Radio‘s Test Match Special: “It’s not just about the runs you score, it’s about how many matches you win for your team and he’s been at the forefront of that for the last decade.
“He’s a guy that gets the job done. He’s an old-fashioned sort of Test player.”
– ‘Rethink’ –
Cook could have several more years in which to break Tendulkar’s all-time aggregate Test record of 15,921 runs.
“Who knows?,” said Cook. I never thought I would get 10,000. Now I will have to have a rethink and set something else personally.”
Cook scored a hundred on his debut against India at Nagpur in 2006 and has now made 28 Test centuries.
But his career has not been one of uninterrupted triumph, however.
His position as captain was called into question two years ago as England suffered a 5-0 Ashes whitewash in Australia and again during the 2014 home series defeat by Sri Lanka.
But Cook responded by scoring his first century in almost two years against the West Indies in May 2015, before leading England to series wins over Australia and South Africa.
“After that 5-0 Ashes loss Down Under, when he was a broken man and everyone was applauding Michael Clarke’s captaincy, the easiest thing would have been to say, ‘I just want to concentrate on my batting,” said former England captain Nasser Hussain.
“But he said ‘no, I’m going to prove people wrong’. Since then he’s won the Ashes back, he’s won in South Africa and he’ll continue to have that stubborn streak. It’s what makes him the magnificent cricketer that he is.”
Batsmen to have scored 10,000 runs in Tests
(player, team, span, matches, innings, not outs, runs, highest score, average, 100s, 50s)
Sachin Tendulkar (IND) 1989-2013 200 329 33 15921 248 no 53.78 51 68
Ricky Ponting (AUS) 1995-2012 168 287 29 13378 257 51.85 41 62
Jacques Kallis(ICC/RSA) 1995-2013 166 280 40 13289 224 55.37 45 58
Rahul Dravid (ICC/IND) 1996-2012 164 286 32 13288 270 52.31 36 63
Kumar Sangakkara (SRI) 2000-2015 134 233 17 12400 319 57.40 38 52
Brian Lara (ICC/WIS) 1990-2006 131 232 6 11953 400no 52.88 34 48
Shiv Chanderpaul (WIS) 1994-2015 164 280 49 11867 203 no 51.37 30 66
Mahela Jayawardene (SRI) 1997-2014 149 252 15 11814 374 49.84 34 50
Allan Border (AUS) 1978-1994 156 265 44 11174 205 50.56 27 63
Stephen Waugh (AUS) 1985-2004 168 260 46 10927 200 51.06 32 50
Sunil Gavaskar (IND) 1971-1987 125 214 16 10122 236 no 51.12 34 45
Alastair Cook (ENG) 2006- 128 228 13 10042 294 46.49 28 47
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed - AFP)